Words from the Editor-in-Chief

On March 27th, we embarked on our annual fundraiser and subscription drive.

Wow, am I glad that’s over.

That’s not to say it wasn’t a great experience. Over the course of the Revive the Drive campaign, we picked up hundreds of new subscribers, raised enough money to allow us to pay artists more, and built an amazing January 2018 double issue (we’ve added two original stories, two poems, and a nonfiction piece). Lesley Conner and I donated critiques to ConOrBust, made a $60 donation to the Humane Society, and Apex made a $125 donation to ConOrBust. Lesley and I live tweeted the film It Follows (and I humbly believe we made more fans of the film much to Lesley’s chagrin). Andrea Johnson tried her best to embarrass me in a no-holds-barred interview.

In total, we raised around $6700. An impressive amount by any measure, especially for a funding event attempted outside the crowdfunding circles of Kickstarter. Our thanks go out to the hundreds of fans who bought a subscription (or renewed one). And to the dozens who bought items sold in our drive store specifically earmarked for Apex Magazine.

April was a big month for us. Along with Revive the Drive event, our guest editor Maurice Broaddus brought our readers original work by Walter Mosley, Sheree Renée Thomas, Chesya Burke, LH Moore, Linda Addison, Kendra Fortmeyer, and Tonya C. DePass in an issue that has been very well received. Maurice did such a great job that he accepted our offer of becoming the Apex Magazine reprints editor, and he now has his eyes on the editor-in-chief position (out of my cold, dead hands, Broaddus!).

The Hugo Awards were announced, and Ursula Vernon’s “The Tomato Thief” from issue 80 picked up a nomination for best novelette. Congratulations to Ursula, and to the other Hugo nominees!

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Enough about the past. Let’s focus on the now. This month we have a new Jackson’s Circus story from E. Catherine Tobler titled “The Three-tongued Mummy.” Evan Dicken marks his first appearance in our zine with the weird gut-punch “How Lovely Is the Silence of Growing Things.” Karen Lord’s “Hiraeth: Tragedy in Four Acts” rounds out this month’s fiction as our reprint.

Andrea Johnson interviews Evan Dicken in this month’s author feature and Russell Dickerson interviews cover artist Marcela Bolívar. We also have the essay “Why Write?” (an excerpt from Yours to Tell: Dialogues in the Art & Practice of Writing) by Steve Rasnic Tem and Melanie Tem. Steve and Melanie wrote the essay (and the whole book) as a back and forth conversation that makes for a unique experience. It’s like listening in on a discussion between two award-winning authors spilling all their secrets about writing and life as a writer.

In addition to our normal nonfiction selection, we also have a couple of bonus features this issue. Andrea Johnson has a lengthy interview with author Robert Sawyer about the virtues of hard SF. Our Lesley Conner speaks with Stephen Korshak in a piece about the Korshak Collection, and celebrating the work and contributions of genre illustrators in the past century.